june 11, 2011

Economic & Political Weekly EPW june 11, 2011 vol xlvI no 24 7

A Demagogue, the State and Civil SocietyA demagogue is able to make New Delhi panic and shoot itself in the foot.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s belated efforts to scuttle the dubious Baba Ramdev’s political ambitions show up a series of messy miscalculations.

Just when Baba Ramdev and his patrons in the Sangh parivar were about to get isolated, at one stroke the government helped him to bounce back by unleashing the police on his supporters at Ramlila grounds in the midnight of 4-5 June. This has turned the Baba into a hero. It is incredible that the government went to such lengths to first appease a demagogue whose demands included the death sentence for corrupt officials, and the abolition of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes. Now from his ashram in Haridwar, protected by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) govern-ment of Uttarakhand, he has given an open call to youth to undergo military training under his guidance. The long rope given hitherto by the UPA government to Ramdev and the support that he enjoys among a wide public spectrum, ranging from gullible believers in his miraculous healing powers to rich non-resident Indians promoting his image as a Hindu icon abroad, are now coming home to roost.

The four-day drama that preceded the midnight police swoop began in reverse order – with a comical anti-climax at the Delhi airport that ended in a distressing finale at the Ramlila grounds. When Ramdev announced his threat to fast against corruption, a panicky UPA cabinet still reeling under its capitulation to the Anna Hazare-led fast and fearing yet another threat, this time from a high-profile, jet-setting guru, dispatched four of its senior members, headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, to the Delhi airport on 1 June to genuflect before the Baba and per-suade him to give up his decision. The days that followed saw hectic rounds of secret talks between him and the ministers, the former gradually gaining the upper hand by declaring that the government had accepted most of his demands, and openly displaying his Sangh parivar affiliations by sharing the dais with the notorious Sadhvi Rithambara and other RSS-VHP leaders. The shameless display of deference to the Baba by the UPA ministers, who had become objects of public ridicule, irked sec-tions within the ruling Congress Party, as well as Anna Hazare and his team (members of the government-appointed joint com-mittee to draft the Lokpal Bill) who suspected that the govern-ment was trying to propel Ramdev as a countervailing force against them. Since the joint committee was already looking into most of the demands that were being made by Ramdev,

why was the government bending over backwards to placate him? Civil society groups also distanced themselves from Ramdev’s anti-corruption campaign because of his open pro-Sangh parivar image.

In the meantime, the UPA ministers worked out a behind-the-scenes deal with Ramdev, coaxing from him an undertaking (signed by his aide Acharya Balkrishna) on 3 June, stating that instead of an indefinite fast, he would sit in meditation only from 4 to 6 June as the government had accepted most of his demands. As a face-saving device, this suited Ramdev – since he knew well that no government in its senses could accept all his populist press-button measures. By 4 June, Ramdev was clearly on the defensive. But, true to the UPA habit of flaunting its petty triumphs, Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal – a key negotiator – waved Ramdev’s note of undertaking at a press conference in the capital, adding that his government knew how to “rein in” (Ramdev). After the exposure of his deal, a cornered Ramdev had no option but to keep his promise of fasting to rein in the tiger that he was riding – his followers who had been whipped up to a frenzy of expectations. Even after this, the government could have called his bluff by adhering to the advice given by the special commissioner (intel-ligence) of Delhi Police to “defer any action till his followers thin down”. While the huge number of participants at the Ramlila grounds on the first day of the fast would have indeed shrunk after the week-end holiday (with most of them going back to work), the Baba could have been left to stew in his own juice with all his yogic powers to help him survive. But, again in another ham-handed approach, the government unleashed the police to clear the grounds – provoking a public uproar.

Curiously enough, similar police actions with more murderous consequences, against farmers staging a dharna to save their lands from corporate sector encroachment, or against villagers protesting their displacement by big dams, which are carried out almost on a daily basis in different parts of India, seldom arouse the sort of vociferous condemnation from Opposition parties and civil society that the events of 4-5 June have. Even the Left parties and democratic rights organisations, which keep their distance from religious charlatans, have been stampeded into voicing protest against the use of police force to disperse Ramdev’s fol-lowers. It is apparent that the issue of public grievance against corruption – hitherto ignored by the Left political parties and the human rights groups – is being usurped by godmen and Hindu

EDITORIALS

june 11, 2011 vol xlvI no 24 EPW Economic & Political Weekly8

Impassioned Slogans, Half-hearted Actions

What will it take to help save the girl child?

India’s child sex ratio (CSR) has been steadily declining for decades and, according to the Census of 2011, has reached 914 girls for every 1,000 boys (0 to 6 years). The reasons for

the decline are all too familiar: the low status of women and “son preference” leading to selective abortion of the female foetus. From the mid-1980s onwards, women’s rights activists have been fighting to prevent the misuse of ultrasound or sonography to determine the sex of the foetus. Medical practitioners who use technology for female foeticide have used every “innovative” trick in the book to remain ahead of the legal restrictions. From devising sign language to overcome the prohibition of indicating the sex of the foetus to using mobile clinics (vehicles) fitted with portable imaging machines, these strategies have ensured that the number of India’s missing girls has multiplied. The govern-ment’s measures to halt the fall in the CSR have come up against the usual roadblock of faint-hearted implementation.

If any further evidence of the phenomenon of a falling sex ratio is needed, the result of a new study provides unambiguous information (“Trends in Selective Abortions of Girls in India: Analysis of Nationally Representative Birth Histories from 1990 to 2005 and Census Data from 1991 to 2011”, The Lancet, 4 June). The study which analysed population census data and tracked the birth history of about 2,50,000 children born between 1990 and 2005 found that when the first child was a male, there was no fall in the sex ratio of the second child. But when the first born was a female, the sex ratio of the second births declined. The study confirms yet another familiar and disturbing trend: selective abortion of the female foetus is the highest in the most educated and in the richest 20% of the households. Despite the sociological fallout of the declining sex ratio such as the non-availability of brides for young men in many of the worst-affected districts of northern and western India, medical technology continues to be used to target the female foetus. Anyone with just six months training or one year’s experience in image scanning can use the ultrasound machines, thus making sex determina-tion easily accessible.

The government’s half-hearted actions give the lie to its impas-sioned slogans and announcements on saving the girl child. For example, the Central Supervisory Board was supposed to meet every six months to monitor the implementation of the Pre- Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act, 1994. The board last met in December 2007. Incidentally, until now only around 6% of cases filed against doctors involved in sex-selection practices have resulted in convictions. This means that of the 805 cases filed since the Act came into effect, only 55

have reached a legal conclusion. Now the union health ministry has reconstituted the board and will place further amendments to the PCPNDT Act before it. Mobile genetic clinics where prenatal diagnostic tests are done will have to be registered, including vehicles carrying portable ultrasound machines. There is also a proposal to ensure that only gynaecologists and obstetricians and practitioners who have Diplomates of the National Board (DNB) will be allowed to use ultrasound machines. The Bombay High Court recently ruled that ultrasound machines being illegally used for sex determination can be seized by the government.

Yet, the government’s attention lies elsewhere. A new proposal that has been reported to be on the table is to make abortion rules stricter. This has given rise to apprehensions that it will make life difficult for women who seek abortion for reasons other than female foeticide. In Maharashtra, women’s organisa-tions are protesting that the state supervisory board on the PCPNDT Act has been more interested in making statements about regulating the sale of the “morning after” pill than in tar-geting the problem of sex determination. Any move to make abortion rules more stringent will only affect poor women and the unmarried who will thus be pushed to risk the services of quacks and illegal clinics.

In the battle to save the girl child, one of the strategies that has shown positive results has been the involvement of community leaders in changing the attitudes of parents. For example, one of the worst-affected districts, Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, has shown a turnaround due to the involvement of Sikh religious and com-munity leaders in the campaign against sex determination tests. For years now women’s rights activists have been demanding that the unholy alliance between local medical and paramedical practitioners on the one hand and government health officials and sonography clinics on the other must be destroyed, public health programmes must be delinked from family planning ones, the value of women’s work must be recognised and women’s right to inheritance and property must be ensured. Some of these are long-term goals which obviously require sustained and committed action, but work on short-term goals like stringent implementa-tion of the PCPNDT Act must start immediately.

Punishing the illegal use of ultrasound machines for sex deter-mination may have some effect but deep-rooted prejudices against the girl child calls for different measures. Strict enforcement of the Hindu Succession Act of 2005 (which allows daughters to inherit ancestral or joint family property), the anti-dowry law and imple-mentation of measures that enforce gender justice and care for senior citizens will go a long way in weakening “son preference”.

sadhus, backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party which is waiting in the wings to replace the UPA. Sadly however, the leader of the other anti-corruption movement, Anna Hazare, by his intemperate utterances and behaviour, has quite often betrayed a pro-Ramdev

bias, to the extent of observing a one-day fast in his support. One expects sober and secular-minded members of his team to dis-suade him from such aberrations, and instead make serious ef-forts to draft a Lokpal Bill.